We were fortunate to be able to come home yesterday after Hurricane Matthew had exited our coast. On the drive back home the concept of cleaning up stayed in the forefront of my mind. And, that is where we are at this point in our lives. Time to put things back into order, restructure by allowing the things we learned to affect new thinking and hopefully a better approach to life. It also made me think about getting some of the junk or stuff out of life as well as reevaluate what is really important.
Yesterday I took a departure from the storm because while I was sitting out in West Florida. In that quietness of rural life, my thoughts dwelt on how the frustrations and anxiety of the storm had affected all of us. We got to see some of the more challenging aspects of each of our personalities as well as an opportunity to view a lot of love expressed by everyone for each other. However, what kept coming back to me was my role (as a parent) in all of those frustrations, anxieties and complexities that you shared at various times. It really puts the heritage concept of scripture into context.
Joe and the rest of the Elders decided to call church off today so everyone could get back, settle in and start cleaning up. This morning, Tracy, Micah and I got started in the back yard. Yesterday when I got back I was able to remove all the boarded up windows and doors as well as remove the tape with Tracy’s help. Today we got the pool and lawn furniture out as well as dispersing the potted plants and pulling the weeds out of the pots because we hadn’t during the summer! By lunch time my age had started to catch up to me and I was thinking about who I could hire to finish the process.
The reality is that the clean-up process can be painful, even when you are not my age. Hurricane Matthew (in this case) was a good reminder that our continual focus should be on cleaning up our lives. During our lazy “summers” we tend to neglect the concept so something has to come along and rattle our cage to wake us up. (Ephesians 5:8b, 10 – 11) says this: “Live as children of light . . . and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them.” The hurricane brought darkness and rain into our lives – we responded, sometimes well, other times with frustration and words that could not be taken back. However, the frustrations were understood.
Since we are not always thinking about remaining in a mental/spiritual clean-up mode, situations like this remind us that sanctification is a life-long process and we will never be completely done – until God says we are! We are to judge ourselves so God will not have to do so (1 Corinthians 11:31). That’s not easy to do because our natural propensity is to rationalize our behaviors and decisions. The challenge is that when we do that too often another hurricane will have to come into our lives and stir it up profusely so the cleaning up and learning process can begin again. The more often, the more pain, stress and challenges you face. That’s why living a life of obedience is so much more peaceful and rewarding.
Tonight we discussed Ephesians 5 and how we can help ourselves in the decision making process. These storms in life are good – just like pain – they illustrate when something needs work and our personal attention. The key is patience and love. Patience with our journey and love for those who walk along side of us. They have to bear the burden of our flawed nature and then see us again tomorrow with a commitment to love us “just the way we are.” That’s our job and Christ’s command.
Love Dad